F 395 
opy 1 



7;^e LOUISIANA 

PORK 

INDUSTRY 



The Louisiana 
Pork Industry 



By O. P. GEREN, President Louisiana 
Swtne Breeders' Association 



sf^'^^ 



&^ 



COPYRIGHT. 1917, BY 
THE LOUISIANA COMPANY 

NEW ORLEANS 



/ 

APR 20 1917 



The Louisiana Pork 
Industry 



THE origin of the hog is lost in the mists of 
antiquity; but the hog has been an impor- 
tant factor in the Hfe of mankind since the 
first records of history. 

Second only to cattle, the hog has supplied the 
meat food for humanity for untold centuries, and 
has sustained races which otherwise would have 
perished. 

Notwithstanding the debt which mankind 
owes to him, and the esteem in which the finely 
flavored meat is held, the hog has been the most 
slandered of all created things. 

His name has been made the synonym for 
unrestrained appetite and all that is unclean, and 
his defamers are those who are indebted to him 
to a degree beyond computation. 

His very docility has led to his undoing, as men 
subject him to treatment under which horses, 
cattle or sheep would perish. The hog is above 
all a hardy animal, adapting himself to all 
climates and conditions. 

He is by nature a clean animal of the open 
fields, and modern practice proves that, where 
abundant food is found, he is as restrained in 
appetite as any animal that can be named. 

Fortunately, the old days of inhuman prac- 
tices and unsanitary methods are rapidly passing, 
and it will not be long before legislation pro- 
hibits the use of the cramped quarters of the 
filthy pig-pen, where unfortunate animals are 



PAGE THREE 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



fed conglomerate refuse, which in turn is con- 
verted into meat for human use. 

The hog ranks second of all meat food produc- 
ing animals, and the United States is the greatest 
of all the hog-producing countries of the world. 

According to international statistics available 
prior to the outbreak of the European War, the 
other great hog-producing countries, given in the 
order of their importance as pork producers, are 
Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungar\^ France and 
the United Kingdom. 

These countries, with the United States, pro- 
duce the great bulk of the output, and the total 
of all other countries is insignificant by com- 
parison. 

In Germany the meat food situation is critical, 
as vast supplies are required to support the 
millions of soldiery in the field, as well as the 
civilian population, which has not only exhausted 
the regular meat supply, but has encroached 
upon the breeding herds, without imports to 
replace the abnormal demands; consequently, it 
will take years to re-establish conditions equal 
even to those prevailing before the w^ar — and 
those conditions were unfavorable, showing as 
they did a constant decrease in production, with 
an ever-increasing population. 

No authentic facts are available concerning 
Russia; but it is the conclusion of economists 
that the Russian swine herds are also greatly 
diminished to provision the armies in the field, 
and in the absence of the great number of stock 
breeders who are at the front, the normal produc- 
tion has not been maintained. 

Through the war, Austria-Hungary has also 



PAGE FOUR 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



made great inroads upon the herds of swine and 
other Hve stock, and, Hke Germany, its supply 
has not been augmented through importations, 
owing to the blockade by the Allied Nations. 

France has cut deeply into her cattle, sheep 
and hog supply, and it is estimated that already 
the number of meat animals has been reduced to 
less than one-half the available supply existing 
prior to the declaration of war. 

The United Kingdom of England, Ireland, 
Scotland and Wales, has drawn heavily upon the 
supply of Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, 
and of other foreign fields; but in spite of this, 
it is conceded that the British supply is already 
much depleted. 

With the depletion of the world's food supply, 
the price of pork, already high, seems destined 
to go much higher, and America cannot look to 
any outside source for assistance in connection 
with pork production, or any other branch of the 
live stock industry, to overcome the growing 
meat shortage. 

Observation and statistics confirm the state- 
ment that the citizens of the United States are 
the greatest meat-eating people of the world. 

It is a rare exception to find an American 
household where pork is not served at least once 
a day, in some form — ham, bacon, chops, roasts, 
and so on. 

A shortage of pork, therefore, would be a 
national calamity, and it is not too much to say 
that the American people would pay even double 
the present high prices rather than be deprived 
of this favorite meat. 

The hog-raising industry, when properly con- 



PAGE FIVE 



The L,ouisiana Pork Industry 



ducted, is singularly free from risk, as the animal 
thrives even under neglect and improper treat- 
ment; and cholera, which is its only scourge, 
has long since yielded to the ministrations of 
science, and is no longer to be reckoned with. 

The fecundity of hogs is amazing, and authori- 
ties on swine husbandry estimate that it is safe 
to calculate upon each brood animal of approved 
variety yielding an increase of ten healthy pigs 
annually. 

The United States Department of Agriculture, 
which has issued many bulletins relating to cost 
of raising hogs in every state of the Union, says: 

"Crops which can be grown in any other part 
of the country can be grown in the South, and 
there are many crops suitable for hog feed which 
can be grown in no other section of the country. 

"Green feed and pasture crops can be raised 
during twelve months of the year, and with the 
use of its luxuriant pastures, the South is in posi- 
tion to make pork cheaper than any other section 
of the United States." 

The mild climatic conditions and fertile soil of 
Louisiana make the production of all classes of 
leguminous feeds, such as clovers, soy beans and 
cowpeas in great abundance at all seasons very 
simple. 

"Westward, Ho!" was long the American slo- 
gan, and the lure of millions of acres of public 
domain available to the settler without cost, is 
the explanation of why the lands of the South, 
more favored by nature, were so long overlooked. 

The agricultural press of the country and 
authorities generally, have long advocated more 
extensive development of the hog-growing indus- 



PAGE SIX 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



try in the South, as it is to this section that the 
country must look for protection against future 
conditions of virtual meat famine. 

The decreasing supply and impending serious 
shortage of meat food have inspired the greatest 
activity by the United States Government, the 
various states, the agricultural colleges, experi- 
ment stations, and others identified with the 
industry, in the encouragement of improved 
methods and increased production. 

It has been demonstrated time and again, and 
all authorities on swine husbandry are united in 
the conclusion, that to produce hogs of satisfac- 
tory size and quality, it is essential that only 
selected breeds be used. 

The breeding of hogs has standardized produc- 
tion, and has made it possible for the grower to 
know in advance, in every particular, the results 
that he may depend upon. 

Furthermore, the market of today is a market 
of quality above all else. 

It pays to produce only the best, and high- 
grade stock combines in the most perfect pro- 
portions the best grades of fat and lean, without 
an abnormal percentage of bone or sinew. 

The strong meat and rancid lard produced 
from the porker of a generation ago would not 
be acceptable in any market today. 

The tendency has been steadily toward the 
production of higher grade animals, and to 
market them at an early age; and the market 
now demands a one-year-old pig of good breed, 
weighing 200 pounds on the average, and any- 
thing below these requirements does not garner 
the top prices. 



PAGE SEVEN 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



An examination of the earliest records and 
archives of the old Colony of Louisiana, including 
the period commencing at the time of the Louisi- 
ana Purchase, reveals nothing authentic concern- 
ing the introduction of swine into this territory. 

It is interesting, however, to note that among 
the records of the earliest travelers in this region, 
mention is made of the fact that the Indians of 
the Gulf Coast used as an article of diet the small 
wild native pig resembling the peccaries, which 
are still found in Mexico and Central and South 
America. 

Shortly after the occupation of Louisiana by 
the French, hogs were introduced into the terri- 
tory from the New England States, whither they 
had been brought from Great Britain by the 
early English colonists. 

Despite the fact that the attention of the 
agriculturist of Louisiana has been concentrated 
almost exclusively upon the great staple crops of 
sugar-cane, rice and cotton, this has been a hog- 
producing state on a large scale always. 

It is only within a decade that Louisiana could 
claim tens of thousands of thoroughbred hogs, 
which are gradually taking the place so long held 
by the herds of porkers without pedigree, 

Iowa is the banner state of the Union in the 
swine industry, in spite of the lack of pasturage 
six months of the year, and of the tremendous 
cost incident to housing and feeding throughout 
the other six months of the year. 

The distinguished lowan, James Wilson, former 
Secretary of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, said at the National Live Stock Show 
in New Orleans in 1916: 



PAGE EIGHT 



The L u i s i a ?i a Pork Industry 



"You can grow just as good hogs here as in 
Iowa — every bit — and I am good authority on 
hog-raising and what you can grow in Iowa." 

Statistics gathered by Federal and state au- 
thorities, experiment stations, agricultural col- 
leges and private investigators, disclose that in 
Iowa, and throughout the corn-belt states gen- 
erally, the cost of hogs delivered at the market 
will average $7 per hundredweight, and under 
the most favorable conditions will average $5 per 
hundredweight. 

The natural advantages of the section, accord- 
ing to authorities, enables the Southern Louisi- 
ana grower to produce hogs at 60 per cent lower 
cost than in the North. 

It is recorded by authorities, in well-authen- 
ticated cases, that by the proper rotation of 
crops, and by making the hogs gather each crop, 
hogs have been raised in the State of Louisiana 
for as low as half a cent a pound. 

In the North, 30 per cent of the feed consumed 
during the winter season, according to authori- 
ties, goes to keeping up animal heat; whereas 
there is no such wastage in the Gulf Coast coun- 
try, where every pound of feed goes to the 
production of meat. 

In the corn-belt states little pasturage is avail- 
able for hogs, as the land must be given over dur- 
ing the entire growing season of six months to the 
production of the corn crop; whereas in Southern 
Louisiana the fields are open and crops growing 
twelve months of the year, thus making an ideal 
combination of pasturage and corn-raising. 

In this connection, a bulletin of the United 
States Department of Agriculture states: 



PAGE NINE 



The h.ouisiana Pork Industry 



"The cost of raising hogs when fed upon corn 
alone, is generally estimated at 5 cents a pound, 
live weight, when corn is worth 50 cents a bushel, 
and 7 cents when corn is worth 70 cents a bushel ; 
that is, a bushel of corn will usually make 10 
pounds of gain, live weight, when carefully fed 
to thrifty hogs. When raised on corn alone, hogs 
are seldom very thrifty; consequently the cost 
will average much greater than this. The best 
way to make hog-raising profitable is to graze 
the hogs upon pasturage prepared especially for 
them, supplementing the green food by the addi- 
tion of a small grain ration. Upon this plan, hogs 
can be raised at an average cost varying from 
i/^ to 3 cents a pound, depending mainly upon 
the management of the sows and pigs, and upon 
an economic plan of feeding." 

Climate is the fundamental factor in the 
attainment of greatest success in live stock 
raising, and is the one element which the genius 
of man cannot alter. 

It is possible to fertilize and enrich inferior 
soil — and at great expense, to water the arid 
wastes by irrigation; but temperature is not 
subject to control. 

In the fertile fields of the North, hogs must be 
taken off pasturage in October and housed and 
fed until May. One-half the grower's time 
therefore, is unproductive, and the crops which 
he has labored one half the year to produce are 
consumed during the other half of the year, 
when the country is stripped of vegetation and 
snowbound. 

In Southern Louisiana, twelve months of mild 
weather, with abundant pasturage for grazing 



PAGE TEN 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



throughout the year, enables the grower to 
produce pork at the minimum cost. 

With an average temperature of 55 degrees in 
midwinter, there are no rigors of chmate to en- 
dure, and hogs farrow and thrive in all the 
months of the year. 

A long summer is a long growing season ; a long 
growing season means more crops. The growing 
season in Southern Louisiana is nearly twice as 
long as in Indiana and Illinois, and for many 
crops is continuous. 

An examination of the Weather Bureau records 
shows that the normal summer of the coast 
region of Louisiana is more pleasant than in the 
interior states — even those north of the Ohio 
River — and temperatures do not go as high as 
in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Indianapolis, 
Pittsburgh, or in the territory surrounding those 
cities. 

From the United States Weather Bureau 
reports we find the mean annual temperature of 
Southern Louisiana to be 68 degrees; the maxi- 
mum temperature about 98 degrees; the mini- 
mum temperature 30 degrees. 

Next to climate, moisture ranks as the pre- 
requisite to success in the production of vegeta- 
tion, and therefore of live stock. 

Thin soils can be built up; but whether the 
soil be rich or poor, water is essential, if soil is to 
have value. 

In the arid states of the Great West, vast 
outlay is required for irrigation, entailing a fixed 
annual expense, sometimes as much as $30, and 
never less than $5 per acre, with all the problems 
that go with the maintenance of great reservoirs 



PAGE ELEVEN 



The I^ouisiana Pork Industry 



and the network of canals through which water 
is distributed. 

In the great Middle West, including the fam- 
ous corn belt, the annual rainfall averages about 
30 inches, and there is never a year but that some 
localities, and in some years whole states, are 
visited by long-continued drought, causing losses 
that run into untold millions. 

Southern Louisiana is the world's most favored 
spot in this respect, with an average annual rain- 
fall of nearly 60 inches, well distributed over the 
year, and with no record of destructive drought 
in the hundred years that weather records have 
been officially kept. 

In Southern Louisiana land is divided into 
drainage districts under state control, and the 
small state tax assures the landowner well- 
drained lands every day of the year, including 
sub-irrigation as a safeguard against any possible 
freak of nature which might cause a long dry 
spell. 

The marvelous fertility of the alluvial soil of 
Southern Louisiana has been the theme of count- 
less papers emanating from authoritative sources. 

It is not too much to say that investigation 
over the whole world has failed to disclose 
another body of land so nearly perfect for the 
production of all plant life — a soil that will pro- 
duce double, and often quadruple, the crops that 
can be grown in any other section. 

The combination of fertile soil, temperature 
that gives a continuous growing season, and 
abundant moisture at all times, is unequaled 
elsewhere. 

On the alluvial lands of Southern Louisiana 



PAGE TWELVE 



The Louisiana Pork Industry 



the modern grower who follows scientific methods 
can make one acre of ground support twenty-five 
head of hogs. 

An interesting recommendation — to market 
half the pig crop under a year old — is made by 
Dr. W. R. Dodson, President of the Louisiana 
Agricultural College and Director of the State 
Experiment Station, who says: 

"Hogs should be bred so as to give one litter 
of pigs in the early fall and the second in the late 
spring. The fall litter should be carried through 
the winter and spring largely on green crops that 
may be grazed, and brought to maturity in late 
summer. The spring litter should be maintained 
largely on green crops until about the first of 
August, and marketed at six or eight months old, 
with more grain and concentrated feed than 
received by the first litter. Exclusive feeding 
for a period of two weeks on concentrated dry 
feed, just prior to selling, will give meat equal to 
that fed exclusively on grain through the fatten- 
ing period." 

Frequently hogs run to great weight, espe- 
cially if aged ; but the tendency of the market is 
to give a decided preference to the younger and 
smaller animals. 

The progressive grower now plans to market 
his pigs at one year old, and 200 pounds is a safe 
calculation of the weight at that age. 

As illustrating the trend of weights over a 
period of nineteen years, the Union Stock Yards, 
Chicago, reports the average weight of hogs 
received in 1897 at 242 pounds, 237 pounds in 
1910, and 210 pounds in 1916. 

The pork is of best qualit}^ at one year old, and 



PAGE THIRTEEN 



The h,ouisiana Pork Industry 



this is also the age when the grower can market 
with the greatest percentage of profit. 

The varieties of grasses and forage crops in 
Southern Louisiana are legion and the yield 
enormous, due to the combination of exceptional 
natural conditions. 

The pasturage is far superior to the famous blue- 
grass pastures of the North at their best. The mild 
climatic conditions and wonderful fertility of the 
alluvial soil produce at all seasons the most abun- 
dant yields of peas, beans, vetch, alfalfa, clovers, 
peanuts, and a multitude of other forage crops. 

Corn, the greatest of all crops from the stand- 
point of hog-raising, produces enormously, with 
records of lOO bushels per acre, sown broadcast 
and without cultivation, with stalks of immense 
height and great growth of fodder, making the 
product incomparable for ensilage. 

It is interesting to know that analyses of over 
500 samples of Louisiana and Illinois corn, made 
by the Bureau of Plant Industry in 1915, show 
an average of 13.4 per cent moisture in Louisiana 
corn, and 19. i per cent moisture in Illinois corn; 
thus proving conclusively that the corn of the 
Gulf Coast country is superior to the famous 
product of the corn-belt states. 

Mr. Frank Funk, of Illinois, who enjoys a 
national reputation as an authority on corn- 
growing, says: 

"In the Louisiana delta the Northern corn- 
grower will find his Utopia. No soil in the world 
contains more of the elements essential to the 
maximum crop of corn." 

The Commissioner of the Louisiana Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, says: 



PAGE FOURTEEN 



The h.ouisiana Pork Industry 



"On account of the mild and congenial climate, 
with the consequent long growing-season, the 
well distributed and sufficient rainfall, there is 
good grazing almost the entire year. 

"The fertility of the soil, in conjunction with 
the climatic conditions, enables one to grow more 
corn, soy beans, and other ensilage crops per 
acre here than in any other state of the Union. 

"The fact that cattle are out of doors on pas- 
turage at all times of the year, keeps them free 
from tubercular and other diseases. 

"Corn grows and produces as much, if not 
more, per acre than in the great corn belt of 
the Middle West. I have seen corn crops in the 
last few weeks that would yield from 80 to 120 
bushels per acre. 

"Oats are among our best feed crops; 50 
bushels per acre is a common yield, and I know 
of some instances where the yield was from 60 
to 85 bushels per acre. Our oat crops are planted 
in the fall, may be pastured during the winter 
months, are harvested in the spring, and are fol- 
lowed by other crops, such as corn, soy beans, 
lespedeza and peas. 

"In my opinion there is no other locality that 
can produce pork as cheaply as Louisiana, and I 
know of farmers who have produced pork for 
2^ cents per pound. 

"The reason for the cheap production of pork 
lies in the large diversity of the feed crops that 
can be cheaply growm. There are several rota- 
tions which give continuous pasturage; for in- 
stance, Bermuda grass, oats, rye, rape, lespedeza, 
white clover, crimson clover, red clover and 
alsike, alfalfa and sorghum. 



PAGE FIFTEEN 



The h.ouisiana Pork Industry 



"To finish the pork we can and do grow enor- 
mous crops of corn, soy beans, velvet beans, 
peanuts and sweet potatoes." 

Authorities deem it a safe calculation that in a 
well-organized hog-raising enterprise in Southern 
Louisiana, a pig at one year old, weighing 200 
pounds, costs the grower not to exceed 3 cents 
per pound delivered at market, and brings an 
average of 10 cents per pound. 

The prolificacy of the animal, combined with 
the low cost of production and the high market 
prices, makes the hog-raising industry in South- 
ern Louisiana the most profitable of all businesses 
that have stability. 



PAGE SIXTEEN 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 835 002 8 



